India studying final award on Kishenganga hydro power project

New Delhi: India on Saturday said it is studying the final award of the international court of arbitration on Indo-Pak dispute on Kishenganga hydro project in Jammu and Kashmir in which New Delhi has been asked to maintain certain flow of water in the river all the time.
"The present final award specifies the amount of nine cumecs (cubic meters per second) of natural flow of water must be maintained in the Kishenganga river at all times to maintain the environment downstream. This is much lower than the 100 cumecs of natural flow that Pakistan wanted to maintain.

"These are technical documents that are being studied in detail by the experts," an official spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs said here.

In its final award on the India-Pakistan arbitration case, the court decided that India shall release a minimum flow of nine cumecs (cubic meters per second) into the Kishenganga/Neelum river below the Kishenganga hydro-electric project (KHEP) at "all times."

The court, in its final award pronounced yesterday noted that India had "coupled intent with action" in the planning and construction of the Kishenganga project before Pakistan achieved the same with respect to Neelam-Jhelum power project, and that the KHEP had acquired "priority in right" as a result.

In its partial award pronounced in February, the court had upheld India`s main contention that it has the right to divert waters of the western rivers, in a non-consumptive manner, for the optimal generation of power, the spokesperson said.